Tag Archives: HAMER HALL

Bill Callahan at Hamer Hall, 4 March 2020.

Singer-songwriter and former Smog frontman Bill Callahan and his four-piece band return to Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall on 4 March, 2020 with songs from his profound new album Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest.

Recording under the names Smog and Bill Callahan, he has produced 16 albums with Chicago indie label Drag City and garnered an impressive cult following. His 2013 release Dream River was critically acclaimed, cementing his already solid reputation as a brilliant songwriter and singer.

Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest, his first record since 2013, continues his accomplished music career with 20 songs that trace different life lines. Major life changes including marriage and the birth of his child have informed the shape of this new album as well as the experience of suddenly finding it harder to find the place that his songs came from.

His songs have always been elusive, landing lightly between character study and autobiography. Characterised by his rich baritone voice, deadpan delivery, and dry observations, Callahan’s music is beautifully intense, understated and profound. But this was more than that. While sorting it all out, he worked on songs every day – which meant that for a while, there were lots of days simply confronting the void, as he measured this new life against the one he’d previously known.

Moving gradually from reflections upon the old days in ‘Ballad of The Hulk’ and ‘Young Icarus’ to the immediacy of the present moment in ‘Watching Me Get Married’ and ‘Son of the Sea’, Callahan traces the different life lines, casually unwinding knotty contradictions and ambiguities with an arresting stillness.

Callahan was last in Australia in 2017 with his guitarist Matt Kinsey for Vivid Festival and an exclusive residency at Melbourne venue, Howler. These intimate shows were a stark contrast to the grandeur of his 2015 visit with Australian performances at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall and Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall.

Callahan will be supported by special guest Xylouris White, with Georgios Xylouris on Cretan laouto and vocals and Jim White on drum kit. Xylouris has been playing professionally since he was 12-years-old. White is an Australian drummer known for his music in the Dirty Three, Venom P Stinger and now Xylouris White. For the last four years the two men have been performing as Xylouris White, the culmination of 25 years of friendship forged through music and place.

Arts Centre Melbourne presents 
Bill Callahan
Special guest Xylouris White 
4 March, 2020
8pm
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
Bookings at 
artscentremelbourne.com.au or 1300 182 183

YO CARMEN with Maria Pagès at Hamer Hall

Review by Kerrie Pacholli

Art Centre Melbourne Hamer Hall audiences, usually a conservative fraternity, expect the best in comfort, technology and talent. Yet again we were not disappointed.

I do love all that is Art Centre!

YO CARMEN, created by Spain’s most treasured and globally celebrated flamenco choreographer, director and dancer Maria Pagès and her Company consisting of 15 of the Spain’s best writers, dancers and musicians had me hypnotized from the first beguiling fan dance. I was transported through time and space. My soul penetrated by Maria’s vanguard Carmen remake using an effective mix of sound track from Bizet’s 1875 score interwoven with live contemporary flamenco compositions. 

 

Powerful emotions were ignited, awakening tantalizing hauntings from my childhood of exotic, sexually charged Gypsy flamenco dancers, thunderously stamping their feet and clicking their castanets. Wild and raw gyrating women dancing with not a hair out of place, being tamed and disciplined by the music of their equally exotic powerful male counterparts.

A tear welled from deep within.  I thought, YO CARMEN!

If anyone in that capacity full theatre was hanging out to see Carmen, the bewitching femme fatal  “taken out” by one of her jealous admirers. Well that didn’t happen…

I was taken to a sacred ethereal epicenter of female energy where continuous explosions of power reside and were channeled to ignite, create, transform and transcend. Can be scary for some…

Onstage dancing with her much younger troupe and hidden musicians Maria was part of, yet orchestrated every move, instrument and vocal ingredient. Potent synchronicity and the voyeuristic megalomaniac in me could not get my eyes off Maria. (you know it hides within us all)

Clearly at the top of her game María Pagés is endowed with evolving charisma that comes with intelligence, confidence and in her case athleticism of someone 30 years her junior.

My instincts tell me that the youth of the world need the opportunity to experience the High Magick artistry of María Pagés Compañía.

Yes, I liked the show.

Arts Centre Melbourne and Arts Projects Australia presents

 

Yo, Carmen

11 – 12 March 2019
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Tickets now on sale at
artscentremelbourne.com.au

Additional performances:

8 – 9 March 2019
WOMADelaide, Botanic Park, Adelaide
www.womadelaide.com.au

Psychic Medium superstar John Edward Downunder

Singer / songwriter Lucy Gale ready to go...
Singer / songwriter Lucy Gale ready to go…

Pation Pics was thrilled to bits to be asked by Dianna O’Neill Publicity to produce an interview with psychic medium superstar John Edward to illuminate his forthcoming Australian tour in November 2014.

This may sound like a straight forward thing to do for some, however, one of our biggest challenges was to brainstorm a line of questioning that would reveal new “secret John Edward business” from one of the world’s most interviewed and probed personalities.

Our interviewer the extraordinary singer / songwriter Lucy Gale was armed with 21 designer questions and she had 40 minutes in which to achieve and deliver our goal.

We were all won over by John’s exceptional warmth, charm and straight shooting honesty.

You will get the chance to decide for yourselves when our unique film footage is released in the not to distant future. This is a must see… 

AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2014 

PERTH                                  RIVERSIDE THEATRE                             FRI NOVEMBER 7

Convention & Exhibition Centre

7pm-9pm

Bookings:        www.ticketek.com.au

ADELAIDE                             HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE                   SAT NOVEMBER 8

7.00pm-9.00pm

Bookings: www.bass.net.au

MELBOURNE                        HAMER HALL                                            SUN. NOVEMBER 9

6.00pm – 8.00pm

Bookings: www.artscentre.com.au

BRISBANE                             CHANDLER THEATRE                            TUES.NOVEMBER 11

Sleemam Sports Complex

7.00pm-9.00pm

Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au

HOBART                               DERWENT ENT. CENTRE                       WED. NOVEMBER 12

7.00pm-9.00pm

Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au

SYDNEY                                STATE THEATRE                                      THURS NOVEMER 13

7.30pm-9.30pm

Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au

 ADDITIONAL SHOWS MAY BE ADDED

 

Singer / Songwriter Lucy Gale, Psychic Medium  superstar John Edward and Kerrie Pacholli
Singer / Songwriter Lucy Gale, Psychic Medium superstar John Edward and Kerrie Pacholli.
From violindeed.com Alex Black with Psychic Medium superstar John Edward.
From violindeed.com Alex Black with Psychic Medium superstar John Edward.
Lucy Gale and Sam Tabone with Psychic Medium superstar John Edward.
Lucy Gale and Sam Tabone with Psychic Medium superstar John Edward.

 Camera man Steve Howard with Psychic Medium superstar John Edward.Camera man Steve Howard with Psychic Medium superstar John Edward.

st-kilda-melbourne-accommodation-1

 Tolarno Hotel St Kilda Melbourne